PJM Photography

It's been a while since my last blog posting, but I have not been idle!

During the dark winter months...(Only kidding...this is Melbourne!) I have been teaching myself how to use Pro Show Producer to produce A/V's. (Audio Visual's)

I have got quite a liking for A/V's as a medium to showcase my photos...and videos.Producing A/V's is a little bit like producing video's, so some of my earlier experience in video editing helps.

My latest A/V is called "After Dark"


I was inspired to produce this A/V after seeing a marvelous presentation from Pele Leung, a great Australian landscape photographer. Whilst my humble attempt is not yet up to Pele's "Ultra Pano" standards, I am quite pleased with it, particularly as I combined HD video from my Canon 5D Mark 2 camera, with raw images taken from the same camera.

Producing an A/V with such large file sizes in Pro Show was quite a challenge. The file sizes of the videos from the 5D are huge...so I had to transcode them to a more manageable file format using Canopus Edius, my editing and transcoding software of choice.

All the still images were exported from Lightroom as raw files (Well DNG files actually) to preserve as much detail as possible.

Once you get to understand it's workflow, ProShow is a great tool for producing A/V's...

As ever, Jill accompanied me on the several nights shooting to acquire these images. One day I may actually get her to take a night shot, but she has to overcome her fear of tripods first...but that's another story!

Anyhow, enough waffle from me...enjoy the show...

Mid winter in Melbourne...So we decided to take ourselves off to the Yarra Valley and see if we could see signs of bushfire regeneration...and signs of spring.

We stayed in Healseville, at a motel called "Sanctuary House Resort Motel"...it was just about adequate, but as we were only using it to sleep on Saturday night, it hardly mattered.

We arrived in Healesville in time for an early lunch, and after a quick tour of the town we decided to explore the region in the car, listening to my newly downloaded (old) Tom Petty album.

We took the road across to Kinglake, an area utterly devastated by the February bushfires. I was very pleased to see life carryting on as "normal" in the town. The local footy team were playing, and the local pub was advertising local bands. We did see lots of temporary housing, caravans, porta cabins and even tents. I'm sure life is not really 'normal' for these poor people.

We drove back to Healesville, stopping to take a shot of the winter sun highlighting the bushfire affected area.


After a fabulous dinner at the Healesville Hotel in Healesville we retired at the ludicrously late hour of 9.00pm!!

Sunday morning saw a glorious winter day in Victoria...blue sky and and temperatures that would make an English summer day blush with shame! We decided to take advantage of the weather and take our own self guided Yarra Valley winery tour. First stop was Rochford Winery for breakfast.



From there we drove to several of the smaller wineries. Jill took advantage of the fact that I was the driver, she decided to actually taste as many of the fabulous red wines as she could...before falling over! I was left drinking water...and an occasional coffee!






From there we drove to Killara winery where we managed to snaffle up some bargains...bottles of their 2007 vintage Sav Blanc for $10 per bottle...you can't go wrong with that price, this is not cheap plonk but boutique vineyard wine. I think I will enjoy Killara winery for quite some months to come!


From Killara we travelled to Morgan winery, a very small winery run by a very friendly Ex patriot welshman. He only grew three types of grape, but still Jill managed to find a Shiraz she liked!

By this stage I was getting fed up of drinking water, so we went for lunch at the Ainsworth Winery, a beautiful lunch of baked Tasmanian Salmon. I finally succumbed and tasted a glass of the estate reserve chardonnay, which was like nectar, and so I treated myself to a $40 bottle!

The afternoon at this stage was drawing to a close, so we headed home for Melbourne, and vowed to visit the area again, and never again to buy a cheap bottle of plonk from the local bottle shop!

To see the full gallery of images from our trip click HERE.

I have just recently completed a holiday back in the UK, and for the first time since moving to Australia I took my camera with me.

It was a revalation looking anew at my hometown, Barnoldswick, in North East Lancashire.

For 40 years I lived in the area and never really stopped to look from a photographer's perspective.

It is often said that you do not appreciate what you have until you no longer have it, and that was certainly the case on this trip.



Barnoldswick is dominated by Pendle Hill, and the entire area surrounding the town is known as Pendleside. There is an old local saying..."If you can't see Pendle Hill it's raining...and if you can see Pendle Hill it's going to rain".!

Not this time, the weather was perfect, with wonderful soft light, ideal for photography.

So what are the main differences between photography, particularly landscape photography, in the English summer as opposed to the Australian summer?

Firstly, the light...I had never appreciated just how soft the light is in England compared to the harsh light in Australia. Taking photos during the daytime in either country can be a problem, but in the soft summer evening light of England, photos take on a completely new dimension. The light just seems to wrap around the entire landscape making harsh shadows almost non existent.






The three images above were taken at around 8.00pm in the evening, and all are HDR images. The rich colours and wide tonal range were ideal for the HDR treatment.

In Australia, as we all know the light can be very harsh, particularly during the main daylight hours. We can often get dramatic sunsets and rich colours, but we have to deal with harsh light. The photograph above was taken in early spring time in Melbourne and shows the typical contrast range we have to deal with.



The second major difference....was the lush colours of England, particularly the greenery. In Australia we can certainly get some spectacular colours, particularly on the coastline or in the desert areas, but nowhere do we see the lush greenery which dominates this part of Northern England. The significant rain which falls on this part of Northern England is of course the main reason for this...green...green evewhere!

I almost felt as though the country was in the grip of a terrible green virus attacking the place. I guess Tom Jones sang about "The green, green grass of home" for a reason, and maybe William Blake was right when he wrote "Jerusalem"...

"And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountain's green...in England's green and pleasant lands".




In Melbourne, 2009 marks the 13th year of continuing drought, so rather than the lush greenerey of England, we have all become accustomed to brown parched landscapes. We can certainly get dramatic landscapes in Australia, always with a cobalt blue sky, and great colours as this photo taken in early winter, from "Hanging Rock" shows...but brown rather than green is the dominant colour.




The third major difference is the quaint picturesque nature of the rural towns. Once again, I know that in Australia we tend to live in the major urban cities, with smaller towns in the mountain, coastal and rural areas, but nowhere do we see the small hamlets such as Downham and Barley, nestling in the foothills of Pendle.





Melbourne of course is a magnificent vibrant place to live with always lots to do and see, which certainly is not the case in North East Lancashire!

But the cities of Melbourne and Sydney tend to dominate, and in Australia our small towns tend to be highway towns, built originally as stop over places for travellers between Australia's great cities. The town of Gundagai is one such example, a small highway town built not necessarily to create a local community, but to support and entertain the many travellers who passed through the town many years ago.



The fourth major difference is the inherent history of England as manifested in the architecture...or to put it another way...England has old buildings!

But not just old buildings, but old ruins...

Just a few miles outside of Barnoldswick for example is Sawley Abbey, which is actually the ruins of a monesterian abbey built in c1147...

For us Australians that takes some thinking about, this place was built over 860 years ago, long before our Australian convict ancestors were even born!

But even the more "recent" architecture of the area is rich in character, particularly evident in the local churches.

This is actually Ghyll Church in Barnoldswick which is the oldest church in the area, and the home for most local weddings, christenings...and as you can see, burials.




In Australia, we really have to search around to find examples of great architecture, as in the example below from Montsalvat in Melbourne.




Another major difference is...WATER!...not just the plentiful supply of water which frequently falls from the sky, but also the water which forms a natural part of the infrastructure in England...canals..lakes...rain clouds, and damns.

Every where you look in the English countryside, water plays a major part, irrigating, transporting and generally balancing the environment.

The Leeds to Liverpool canal is almost as pervasive in this part of the world, as the Yarra river is in Melbourne, except the canal is always full!

Canal boats, these days, act as holiday "homes" for people who don't want an overseas holiday in Benidorm, Majorca or the Greek Islands. But it's not too difficult imagining, in years gone by, the canals acting as the major transport routes between Leeds & Liverpool, long before the cursed M62 was built!

Now we have plenty of water in Australia, the only problem being it is salt water...in the sea which surrounds us. We have mile upon mile of spectacular coastline, nowhere more so than the Great Ocean Road on the southern edge of Victoria.


But our freshwater lakes are few and far between, and often we are left to photograph nothing better than a dried up lake bed.



The Lakes District...
I cannot believe that for 40 years I lived within a 45 minute drive of one of the most scenic and picturesque areas of England, and yet hardly ever went there!

I bet in all my years in England I only went to the Lakes District 6 times, and 5 of those were probably as a child on holiday with my parents in the "Black & White" era. (All my childhood memories are in Black & White, and all my childhood photos are in Black & White)

In Australia I will happily travel for hours to arrive at some quarter full lake in a remote area, with nothing much of interest other than the lake itself. Lake Eildon and Lake Hume are two examples which spring immediately to mind.

So on this trip I was determined to re visit the Lakes district and look at the area as a photographer...


I arrived at Lake Windermere in the early afternoon, not the best time for photography. Unfortunately I did not have time to stay until the evening so I had to make the best of the midday sunlight to take my photographs.


I have to say the views and the scenery were stunning.

Lakes full of fresh water, towering mountains and gorgeous English cloud filled skies.

I have become very accustomed to the cobalt blue skies in the Australian summer and I had simply forgotten how good the cloud filled skies of England can look.

Of course, I also remember that for most of the year, the Lakes District can be a miserable grey place with rain, wind and low scudding cloud...but not today!

I did a quick three hour tour of the area, along the narrow and seemingly becoming more narrow, roads of the area. One thing I can say for sure, the narrow roads were not designed to cope with the volume of traffic on the roads in England today, nor were they designed to cope with the big coaches and 4 wheel drive vehicles towing huge caravans.

Despite the traffic, I managed to visit Lake Windermere, Lake Coniston, Lake Ullswater, Grasmere and Derwent. Five different mountain and lake areas, all accessed within a 3 hour drive...and still I had time for a coffee. It would probably have taken me 3 days in Australia to find 5 lakes with a decent amount of water in them, certainly in the drought affected South East of Australia where I live.

In typical fashion though, the day ended abrubtly as a the warm humid English summer day gave way to a thunderstorm. I did at least manage to get one decent shot of the storm approaching.



In conclusion...
So, a very quick tour of my roots in England lasting less than 2 weeks. I learnt to appreciate my home town from a very different perspective, and I learnt to appreciate the natural beauty of the area, which I had previously taken for granted.

It's true that for 3/4 of the year the area is covered in grey cloud and is cold, wet and windy. But when it's not, as was the case this trip, it is truly stunning.

Australia, by comparison is a much easier climate to live in, but a much harsher climate for photography. We get stunning sunsets and sunrises in Australia with spectacular coastal scenery and occasionaly, great landscape shots, taking advantage of the deep colours of the land.

We get extremes of weather in Australia and very different terrains, but we also get very harsh light, particularly in the long hot dry summers.

My trip to England has inspired me to look at my new "home town" differently, and perhaps see if I can find some new ways to photograph the character, diversity and rugged beauty of Australia...

...To be continued...

Well a 10 day trip to the UK from Australia involves a lot of tiring traveling for such a short trip.

Was it worth it?
Absolutely....It was great to catch up again with so many friends and relatives.

This trip was particularly pleasing because we managed to catch up with some friends we had not seen since we emigrated, in particular, Clare who made a lovely lunch in Hyde Park, Brian who introduced us to Jacque his new wife, Andy Makeham who seemed very contented with his new family, and especially Janine and Natalie Bromage.

It has been too long guys and we hope to see you all again soon.

The weather was kind this time around and we actually saw some sunshine in England! although true to form we got saturated on the second Friday as the English summer broke into a downpour.

I managed to get out and about and get some photos of the area. The final slideshow of our UK trip can be seen HERE.

So to all our friends and relatives...thanks for making the trip enjoyable and we will see you all again soon...

I lived in the Pendle area almost all of my life.

People used to tell me how "beautiful" the area was, but I have to confess I never really shared this view.

Most of the time Pendleside is covered in cloud, mist and rain...but not so today.

So I decided to take advantage of the unique sunny day and see if I could capture some of the local "beauty"...

First stop was Roughlee, a quaint little village nestling at the foothills of pendle hill. The town was closed and the local pub was closed!

From there on to Barley, and the Barley Mow oub, which was also closed. From there to Downham and the Asheton Arms, which was open!

The village of Downham is the home of the TV series "Born & Bred", and I have to say it really is a beautiful place...on a sunny day like this!

Finally in Downhan I saw signs of life, real people actually out enjoying the day, and enjoying the sunshine.

From Downham I drove up to Pendle hill itself, well not actually up the hill you understand, but to "base camp", the car park on the ajacent farm. I did manage to get one or two decent photos, particularly rare photos of pendle hill bathed in sunshine.

From pendle, I travelled down to Clitheroe and Chatburn and around the West Bradford, area, visiting Sawley Abbey, or at least the ruins of Sawley Abbey, a Monasterian Abbey built in c 1147...a long time ago!

So, finally to Chatburn again, and another catch up, this time with Peter Smith (AKA Smithy), lots to talk about and lots to discuss.

Today, Wednesday July 1st I decided to take a trip down memory lane...well my memory lane at least.

Starting with a trip to Letcliffe Park in Barlick, I managed a few scenic shots. I was particularly keen to get a shot from Manchester Road of the view down into Barnoldswick with the "Bancroft Mill" chimney standing proud over the town.

From there I moved to Greenberfield Locks, a favourite walking place from the past.

On to Ghyll church and the cemetary to visit my Dad's grave. This visit always stirs up emotions in me and today was no different. I often wonder what he would say about the world today. I guess I will always be left wondering...

Gyhll church always has an "eerie" feel about it and I tried to enhance that feel with some moody shots. I have been to weddings and funerals here and I always feel slightly uncomfortable at the place.

On to West Marton locks, and more shots of canal boats. It was warm and humid and I stopped off for a latte. I think Lancashire should stick to the "cup of tea" as the preferred drink, The latte was woeful!

Finally, on to Barnoldswick Town Square. I have never really managed to get a good shot of the square, and once again today was no different, although bathed in sunshine it did look much better than the miserable place I remember. I tried another latte at the cafe in the square, but gave up after two sips, it too was awful!

So back to my mothers place to watch the tennis, and the beautiful sunny morning gave way, as it so often does in this part of the world, to clouds and then later a thunderstorm.

As we always used to say, summer in England comprised two days of sunshine followed by a thunderstorm...and so it was...aaahh memories!

What a day!...

Train from Skipton to Leeds at 8.30 am, just enough time to take some shots of the early morning non activity on the canal at Skipton.